Like a Denver phone book dropping on your front porch, a bill allowing consumers to say no thanks to more home-delivered directories died with a thud Tuesday.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, would have allowed consumers to opt out of having white- and yellow-page directories delivered to their homes.

Ferrandino said most of his constituents say they don’t want the heavy phone directories and are tired of having to throw away or recycle them.

“Things are changing. People are using less and less phone books,” Ferrandino said, bringing a mess of unwanted phone books with him to the House Transportation and Energy Committee.

“People want to have a choice on if they get the book or not.”

He said five to 10 other states were considering similar legislation.

But phone company officials and executives with publishing companies said the bill was unnecessary.

They said residents already have ways of opting out of the deliveries, and besides, many — especially the elderly and those in rural areas — want the phone books.

Neg Norton, president of the national Yellow Pages Association, said Americans referenced yellow-page directories 12 billion times a year.

The industry, he said, has “no economic incentive to deliver a phone book to someone who doesn’t want it.”

Edie Ortega, a lobbyist with communications provider CenturyLink, which has many rural customers, said the bill was “focusing a lot on trying to solve an urban issue across the state.” She said directories in rural areas are not nearly as thick.

“I’m concerned about the jobs” that could be lost, said Rep. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs.

The committee killed the bill on an 8-3 vote, with Democrats and Republicans voting against it.

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